The Psychology of Love: the untold story of Alex and Chandler
by Freud69
Summary: Together using the power of psychology and love, Alex and Chandler face the biggest obstacle in their relationship and lives: moving. The Psychology of Love is a timeless classic about growing up and the human dignity that unites us all.
The drive home from work felt longer than normal for Chandler. _It's the warm weather_ , he thought to himself, reading 82 on the dashboard. Unfortunately, the weatherman predicted correctly, for it was the first day all year the temperature broke eighty. This made his Prius seem rather stuffy, causing Chandler to turn on the air conditioning.

 _Probably a waste_ , he figured switching it back off after a few seconds of contemplating. While his body wanted to remain at homeostasis by keeping a comfortable temperature, by the time the car started feeling cool, he'd already be home. In a matter of minutes Chandler and his light blue 2009 Prius found themselves rolling through their old neighborhood.

 _I guess it isn't old yet_ , Chandler thought to himself wiping the sweat off his brow. Him and Alex were still living in their studio loft for the next few days, and by this time next week, the pair would be cruising down the highway, with their U-Haul in tow on their way to a new beginning. Hopefully, the truck would have a better A/C.

Passing by apartment buildings and small cafes, Chandler thought about how he would miss the quaint little town. Over on the left was the candy store, a popular place for all the kids to fill their pockets with sugary snacks. On the right by the antique shop was the Starbucks. Chandler was thinking that it was probably for the best that he and Alex would no longer live so close to a coffee shop. Driving by it made Chandler's mouth water.

Returning his eyes to the road, Chandler soon found himself pulling up to to the studio loft. Wiping his shoes on the mat he wondered how much packing Alex got done while he was at work. Probably not much, Chandler figured as he messed around with the keys in the lock. Swinging the door open only confirmed his suspicion as spread out on the floor was piles of empty boxes and packing peanuts.

"-hold on a is that you?" A voice called from the back of the loft.

"Yep." he replied putting his shoes in the closet. Looking around inside it, Chandler groaned to think of all the coats that still needed to be packed, and then all the other clothes upstairs.

"-really, but why would they-? Not another day, that hardly leaves us enough time to- alright I'll talk with him about this. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Bye."

Just then Alex walked into the entrance, still holding onto the phone from the kitchen

"Bad news, babe" Alex said to Chandler, nervously fumbling around with the phone.

"What is is?" he replied.

"That was the realtor. He just said the installer and his crew are coming Thursday to put in the new shag carpet, and they need us and all of our things out by then." Using his temporal lobe for facial recognition, Chandler was able to discern that Alex was worried. Suddenly so was he.

The news of their sudden evacuation kicked Chandler's sympathetic nervous system into gear. He felt his heart rate increasing and his breathing becoming shorter. Thursday? But that only gives us 48 hours to finish packing. Alex was already being slow enough packing all of his "art" into the U-Haul. How are the new owners expecting them to be gone in so little time?

And who in their right mind would install _shag_ carpets. What is this the seventies?

Realizing that panicking was not the answer, Chandler's parasympathetic system took over. In seconds his heart race and breathing slowed down, and his digestive system went back to digesting the tortellini from lunch.

"Well" Chandler began "We're just going to have to pack everything up by then. We really don't have much choice in the matter of how long we can stay, but we can control how long it takes to get everything into the truck"

Alex, not completely sharing Chandler's internal locus of control, was messing around with the phone cord in his hands.

"But with only two of us, there's no way we can get everything packed safely. I mean the pillows we don't have to worry about; they can just be thrown in without damage. My paintings are going to need special care moving into the trailer, and don't even talk to me about the vases. Your books are already packed, right?" Alex asked, hopeful for anything.

"Uh, well I had to take out the DSM earlier; one of the neighbors was talking about a headache or something that was bothering him and I was trying to be helpful-"

"So they aren't packed,"

"I had to take some books out to find it, and it sorta got messy. I tried putting them back, but the pages were folding over and-"

"Great." exclaimed Alex collapsing onto the couch. Chandler knew that that he was getting stressed. The move was already taking a tole on the two since they started looking for houses, and the shortened time span was not helping. He joined Alex on the couch.

"Listen Al, we can get this done. I'll call into work tomorrow and spend the day with you boxing everything up."

"I guess"

"And we can call over some of our friends to help us. There's Mas, Skinner. I'm sure we could get John and Rosalie-'

"They just had their baby, remember?" Alex reminded him.

"Oh yeah, Albert. Well we could call up Sig-"

"Keep dreaming"

"Well we might as well call them up." Chandler said getting to his feet. "Who knows. Maybe the Watson's will drop their son off at Grandma's and they'll help us out for an hour or so. Any little bit helps. And what makes you think Sig won't come?"

"Okay, it's not that I don't think he'll come, it's that I don't want him to." confessed Alex. This surprised Chandler.

"Why on earth not?"

"It's just...I don't know. Last Friday when I went over to his place to pick up some stuff, he was asking me how the move was going. I said I was stressed from all the packing and then he started asking me all these weird questions about my mom"

"Yeah, well that's just how he is sometimes. You know that" Chandler tried to reason.

"Okay fine, but for a guy who talks about moms so often, he sure does have quite the fetish for cigars. Just sayin"

Chandler couldn't help but chuckle. The ghrelin in his brain reminded him that lunch was over four hours ago. He reached out his hand toward Alex.

"How about we put some dinner on the table, and take care of the phone calls after the fact?"

With a begrudging smile Alex took hold and got to his feet.

"I already packed up the pots and pans, so it's probably going to be a leftovers night" he said as they walked into the kitchen

"I'm fine with that" Chandler replied. The moving situation just got more stressful, but like everything else the couple has gone through in their relationship, they'll get through it just fine.

The end

for now


End file.
